If we don’t win the division, Tuesday will be the night to go back and cry about. Another game given away by managerial decisions.
First, with Boston’s terrible bullpen looming in the future, Terrence Jon Francona decided to replace Mike Clevinger with Josh Smith. Predictably, Smith allowed 2 runs. Because of runs the Indians scored off Sale and the Sox ‘pen, they lost by 1. Brad Hand was likely unavailable, making Nick Goody his best reliever, but after Smith, he used the Cimber-Clippard-Wittgren trio instead. So anyways, this means Francona prioritized length over effectiveness tonight, which is… (charitably) a decision managers sometimes make. What they don’t do is make that decision AND THEN try to play for an 11th inning when down by 1 in the 10th. AND YET, “Tito” did just that, having Mike Freeman lay down an atrocious bunt (against an atrocious pitcher) that produced even worse results than a stupid sacrifice would have.
You would think that a manager who gives up an out to his opponent every night would face criticism from mainstream writers here and there, AND YET…
• Someone came up with an entirely new idea for an article: a Terry Francona puff piece
Great news time
• Carlos Carrasco fielded some grounders and wants to face a few hitters on Friday!!!!
• Corey Kluber’s rehab start in AA went very well. Some are saying he’ll have 2 more of them. I’m pretty sure I’m in the “1” camp.
• Literal God Carlos Santana is moving up the club home run chart
• Elsewhere in that same Carrasco link is some stuff about Hunter Wood (ready) and Danny Salazar (hopefully throwing soon)
Around baseball
• Kyle Seager had a 3 HR game but the third one was a fly ball that the Trashfire Tigers knocked over the wall
• Chris Sale became the fastest pitcher to 2000 strikeouts
• Charlie Manuel coaching Bryce Harper… Tom Hamilton is so conflicted right now